Europe’s Industrial Accelerator Act can strengthen strategic value chains and low-carbon manufacturing only if it prioritises genuinely European production. Clear rules on Union origin, low-carbon aluminium and review mechanisms are essential to support investment, competitiveness and Europe’s industrial resilience.
Europe’s Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) is a welcome and necessary step towards a more assertive industrial policy. For energy-intensive sectors such as aluminium, it can help create the lead markets needed to support European production, accelerate decarbonisation and strengthen strategic value chains.
But the IAA will only deliver if it is designed with precision. A measure intended to reinforce European industry should not be diluted by giving automatic equivalence to products from third countries that do not meet comparable standards.
That is why the Union origin requirement should focus on a purely European scope: the EU27, the EEA, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. These are the partners with whom the EU shares integrated aluminium value chains. Extending the same treatment automatically to a broader pool of non-European trade partners would weaken the measure and reduce its ability to support production in Europe.
